4 Basic Elements of Empowerment in an Organisations

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The basic elements of empowerment in an organisations are as follows:

1. Performance

Higher does not necessarily mean wiser. What might help is subsidiary doing things and taking decisions at the lowest possible level. If it is carried out fully in normal organisations, subsidiary would give them better performance.

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2. Ownership

Empowerment is about ownership It is a way of involving people in the operations of the organisation so that they feel personal responsibility for their actions or decisions for the organisation which would result in a better performance.

3. Teams and leaders

The traditional conservative view of an organisation is the stockholder model the organisation exists to make a profit for the shareholders and the staff is further down the line.

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The “stakeholder’/model is a different approach which takes into consideration the external environment and the interactions with it. Under this approach the employees achieve reward and recognition and both staff and management have an input in decision making.

The empowering organisation actually aims to tap people’s knowledge and experience. Hence, it is a wise investment to develop people.

This means it must develop their teams too. Development for managers arises from many opportunities like tackling new challenges, learning to co-operate with others. The development of the organisation, in turn comes from the development of the individuals, teams and managers. The means by which

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The empowering organisation achieves performance and development is leadership. When confident leaders support confident teams of empowered individuals, it results in success.

Successfully empowered organisations are based on teams that are working well and co-operatively. Good performance comes from good team. Some of the activities that need to be developed can include learning each other’s jobs.

The advantages of this is that it teaches the staff additional skills and provides the organisation greater flexibility as employees can be moved around in times of crisis to do other works.

In Japanese companies where lifetime employment is guaranteed, staff will be expected to do whatever the organisation requires them to do. By helping the staff develop more skills their ability to do their jobs and their satisfaction levels can both be raised.

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Secondly, teams encourage staff to contribute ideas on work methods. This process may be achieved through systems such as quality circles or regular meetings.

The team may be encouraged to arrive at the best organised and distributed way of doing the work in order to achieve team targets and organisational goals. The whole approach requires the managers to lead their people and get the best out of them.

Managers should lead in such a way that encourages empowerment. One of the outcomes of empowerment for individuals and teams will be that jobs will become more interesting as individual will have more responsibility and the opportunity to influence events. This will lead to increased motivation for the individual and improved morale for the team.

4. Culture and structure

The organisation will need a culture that is open and responsive to change. The Japanese word kaizen means continuous improvement. Improvement is always possible.

The implication of the new approach for the structure of organisation is that it will become flatter as management layers are reduced due to the staff taking on more responsibility.

The empowering organisation focusses its attention on giving people opportunities to perform to their maximum effectiveness. The empowering organisation actually wants 10 tap people’s knowledge and experience. Therefore, as wise investment, it must develop their teams also.

The opposite of empowering organisation is the “hamstrung” organisation, meaning thwarted, impeded people and inefficient organisation. People want to do good work. The empowering organisation helps them, the hamstrung organisation hinders them.

The difference between empowered and hamstrung is an intertwined combination of information and motivation. The better the information the employees get the more motivated they can be and the better the information they give their management, the more unified and motivated the organisation can be.